


Remembering What Was

by Caliginous_Confused



Series: Reaper76 Week 2018 [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Failed Relationships, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Old soldiers thinking about the past, Reaper76 Week, but not a lot, i mean there is some comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-05 08:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13384428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caliginous_Confused/pseuds/Caliginous_Confused
Summary: Jack and Gabriel went through a lot together. From SEP to Overwatch and whatever was happening after. They became close, were married. Now, they look onto those memories fondly, wanting nothing more to go back to those times.[For days 1 and 5 of Reaper76 week 2018]





	1. Chapter 1

Jack sat down on the old beat up cot he was using. He and Ana were snowed in some broken-down warehouse, stuck until the blizzard stopped. He hated being this inactive. Even in his old age, he needed to keep moving, or else he’d get caught by either law enforcement or Talon. Whether it was moving from one place to another, or actually fighting the fight he was made for, he just had this one thought. He just needed to do more than what he currently was, which was nothing.

He ran his hand through his hair and down his neck, pausing as he pulled out his old dog tags. There were two sets on them: his and Gabriel’s.

He frowned and looked at Gabriel’s specifically. There were a few spots of soot, where the engraving had melted from the heat of the explosion in Switzerland. This was all he was able to find of him, until Reaper came up.

Gabriel Reyes.

From the days they met at the SEP Jack knew that their fates were going to be intertwined. At first, it started out as a simple rivalry. They both wanted to be the top of their class. Where Jack excelled, one-day Reyes would step up and completely crush him the next day having spent all the free time they had working on that skill set until he could beat the other.

 This lead to them sneaking out after curfew, which lead to them to them both collapsing from exhaustion, forcing them to be in the clinic. The medical staff kept them together simply because of the pure idiocy of the situation. There they found out why the other was fighting, and their rivalry turned into something that could be called a friendship.

In addition to just be a hero for humans, Jack was fighting to find a way for Omnics and Humans to coexist, and Gabriel was fighting so people knew heroism extended beyond race, that even someone who came from nothing could be where he was. He also let Jack know he wasn’t going to let some blue collar boy scout ruin it for him. That earned a chuckle out of him and said that he would be disappointed if he did.

From then, they supported each other. They pushed each other to their limits in the work out rooms, and when the side effects of the treatments set in, they faked out of training for the say as to not overtake the other. They ended up sharing a bunk together by request, and a close brother-like bond formed between the two of them. One was going to be named the best, and the other was going to be a close second.

When Overwatch recruited them, Jack even went as far as to recommend that Gabriel should lead them. He knew that Gabriel was a better tactician than he was, and that he could easily get them to victory, Jack was there for moral support. When the crisis was over, and Jack took his job, Gabriel was happy. The weight was gone, and he could continue to do things his way with Blackwatch. Better yet, due to him being seen and not heard, keeping the relationship between him and Jack that formed, in what they at the time thought was going to be their final stand, a secret.

Jack loved Gabriel more than he could ever put into words. When he knew that he was going off on a dangerous mission, he couldn’t wait to see him again and pull him into his arms. The confession, though was completely impulsive in a “I don’t want to die without saying this” kind of way, Jack didn’t regret it in the slightest.

They got married a year after the greatest day of their lives until that day. Then that day the victory of the Omnic Crisis was the second best day of their lives. They were so happy together. They completed, and complimented one another in a way that no one else could. There was no one else Jack would trust to keep his back safe, both in the public eye, and on the battle field.

So, when Gabriel started pulling away, it concerned him. “It’s stress,” Gabriel would say trying to shrug him off. When Jack tried to press, he would always deflect by tenderly kissing Jack until the concern was lost on his tongue and replaced with sweet moans and whispers of Gabriel’s name.

Then, everything just fell apart.

First it was their relationship. It became too strained by whatever Gabriel was trying to hide, it seemed that whatever it was – it was deemed apparently more important than keeping Jack by his side. It hurt.

It hurt to see the one you love to turn away from everything that then lead to losing them forever. They had gone through too much to just end. But, they did.

“Gabe you idiot…you threw so much away,” Jack whispered and held Gabriel’s dogtags in his fist and pressed his hand to his face. “I loved you so much…but now…there has to be a reason.”

Jack, despite all the odds held onto hope. Hope in his memories of the Gabriel he knew and held on that there was something more that he was up to.

“You doing okay Jack?” Ana asked walking into the room, her expression colored in concern. The old soldier jumped and moved to hide the dog tags out of sight, but a gentle hand stopped him. “I miss him too.”

“Yeah, but not the same,” Jack responded. “It’s always tough when I am forced to stay still. I can’t help but to think that he’s up to something.”

“If he is, will that change anything?”

Jack’s expression fell as he shook his head. “I don’t know. I’d like to get back with him…but the damage has been done. I don’t know that it will be possible.”

“Now, if there is one thing you two are good at, it’s doing the impossible. I mean, you both survived that explosion.”  

Jack scoffed at that. “Yeah but I am not unscathed.”

“Then it will be the same for you and Gabriel. Your relationship will survive, but not without it’s scars. It’s how life works.”

“When did you get so wise?”

“What’s this ‘when’ business, I have always been wise. You just had a dick up your ass so much that you didn’t notice.” Ana couldn’t help but to laugh at Jack’s face.

Still, he couldn’t help but to feel a little hope toward the situation. Maybe, just maybe they will be okay.


	2. Downfall Falling out/Heartache

Reaper materialized on a roof looking down over what remained of the Zurich explosion. Despite it happening 6 years that day, the ground was still black under the snow. The white blanket served to cover up the darkness that that he remembered the land by. He lowered his head to look at the ground and knelt.

A crunch in the snow behind him was heard. He reached in to his coat and grabbed onto a shotgun. He stood up and swung his arm toward the one who was making all the noise. “You used to be quieter,” he growled at the red-white-and-blue soldier.

“Heh, I can say the same to you. It was too easy to find you,” he responded with a smirk heard in his voice. His hands were held up near his head. He came as unarmed as the wraith was going to see him. He wasn’t completely unarmed, too paranoid.

“What do you want Morrison?” Reaper lowered his gun and went back to his kneeling position.

Jack knelt next to him and hugged his knees before rocking back and sitting in the snow. “Where did we go wrong? With Overwatch, I mean.”

“I know what you mean.”

“Do you? I could’ve meant the two of us.” Reaper scoffed at the statement.

“What’s the difference? I would think the explosion made it clear – we’re done.”

“Are we?”

“Yes Jack!”

“Okay – okay. I hear ya.”

They both looked over the ruins of the base they both called home at some point. The place where they were safe, where they could go to and know a pair of strong arms were waiting there for them. Now, it wasn’t warm. It was cold as their relationship. In all honesty, it was surprising that they weren’t each other throats. Maybe it was the significance of the day.

Maybe it was because they were truly alone for the first time since they found out one another’s identities.

“What happened to you Gabe?” Jack asked looking up at the sky as a light snow started falling. The white flakes were catching in Jack’s hair that at another time would make Gabriel smile as he wrapped Jack into his arms for warmth, kissing him. Now, Gabriel was only left with that memory. He felt no cold, and he was forcing himself to feel nothing toward Jack at that moment.

“What do you mean?”

“Before…” he trailed off and gestured out in front of him, “this, you became distant. Something happened. You started pushing us away, me Ana, Jesse, Genji. What happened?”

Gabriel turned away and his posture changed suggesting that he was sighing. “Jack…I can’t. If I tell you…Just…trust me.”

“How can I?”

Gabriel visibly flinched and leaned away from Jack from the spite and anger in his voice. Even though his eyes were covered he knew that all he’d see in them is pain. He hurt Jack in a way that no one else should. Not only that, he was the last person who should have ever hurt Jack, but in reality, he was probably the first.

Gabriel had no words to say. There was nothing to say. He had said everything 6 years ago. Sure he forgot somethings all those years ago. He forgot to tell Jack how much he meant to him, how right before the heat of the explosion consumed him and he saw nothing but white until there was nothing, the last thought he had was that he needed to save Jack; how much he loved Jack; how dark and empty the world was without Jack.

He should’ve stayed. He should’ve stayed and explained to Jack what had just happened and what to expect. That opportunity had passed, and bitterness that could’ve been avoided between the two of them had instead festered for years. It was simply waiting for heat, and a boiling point before it all spilled over.

The feelings around them were as cold as the snow under the two of them. Words that should’ve been said probably will never be said, and remained felt between the two of them. If they were said, the other wouldn’t believe the weight of the words. It was better to just leave things the way they are.

There was really one thing to be said between the two of them.

Gabriel stood up and took off his mask, letting Jack look at his scarred, disfigured face. He looked at the wreckage around him, his eyes showing how much pain was behind them as he met Jack’s gaze. His shoulders fell as Gabriel raised his gaze toward the horizon.

“We never got to say it before…Goodbye Jack Morrison,” He said his voice mostly even, if not sad if you really knew who he was. Jack stood up and took off his visor and met Gabriel’s gaze.

“Goodbye Gabriel Reyes. It was an honor to serve with you.” There was a twitch at his mouth as he replaced his mask. And turned, his cloak billowing.

“As always Morrison.”

\---

Sombra was leaning against the wall of the airship, her arms were crossed. “What happened to you Gabe?” she asked. As always she sounded like she knew the answer to get own question. Reyes was sure his posture wasn’t giving anything away what happened on the ground. Still, he knew Sombra had her ways.

“Just memories,” Gabriel said as he sat down and rested one of his feet on his knee, crossing his arms. “Just sit down.” He was starting at a corner, frowning under his mask. Sombra turned toward him, looking like she wanted to say something but obliging to his order.

Gabriel wasn’t a stranger to the empty feeling in his core. He had assumed that it was because of the state of his body. The ragged state he was left in after the explosion, the fact he couldn’t stand to look at himself in the mirror anymore.

He was wrong. The emptiness in his heart wasn’t associated with his appearance, or state of being. It was because he lost the most important person in his life and was never going to be able to get him back.

He lost Jack Morrison.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am posting the Reaper76 week stuff I didn't get around to editing, I am sorry that this is a mess, but I am currently in school mode, and am only going to really be writing on the weekends, so before I get my life sorted out, I am mass-posting (meaning like 2) parts of the week I have written, and there is one more that I have in the works. I plan on getting to the other days but right now I am trying to decide if I want to work on my long-stuff, or just post cute one-shots. 
> 
> I know I am probably going to finish Love in Blind here pretty soon, I have like 1-2 chapters that I want to write on it, so be on the look out for that whenever I get around to it. 
> 
> If you want to follow me more, and see all my ramblings and stuff you can follow me on [Tumblr,](http://www.caliginous-Confused.tumblr.com/) [art blog where I post a lot of random stuff,](http://www.caliginous-arts.tumblr.com) [ and Twitch.](https://twitch.tv/caliginousconfused)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So I have been working on this for a while, and now I am getting things out. Some days might be a little slower than others (Like tomorrow because I just realized I wrote the same thing twice, but I got this) but I hope to do all the days. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed this! 
> 
> If you want to follow me more, and see all my ramblings and stuff you can follow me on [Tumblr,](http://www.caliginous-Confused.tumblr.com/) [Twitter,](https://twitter.com/CaliginousZack) [ and Twitch.](https://twitch.tv/caliginousconfused)


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